Year: 2013

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston: Farewell To Manzanar. I am interviewing Jeanne Houston tomorrow in person in Santa Cruz. Among other things, we’ll talk about the 40th anniversary of a memoir that  sold about a million copies, went through more than 60 printings, and forced generations of Americans (including countless thousands of young readers) to remember a shameful episode of World War II history.   I just read it for the first time a couple of weeks ago and was blown away by its combination of straight-up journalistic style and lyrical, fantastical flourishes. It is easy to see why the book has so much staying power. Hard to believe, but the mass relocation of an entire group of loyal Americans to Manzanar and other desert prison encampments took place a mere seven decades ago. Looking forward to our conversation, which you will be able to read in excerpted form…

It is just my luck that the woman sitting me during the 1:10 p.m. Sunday showing of “Argo” at Century Cinemas 16 (in Mountain View) was eating an extremely loud, crunchy,  drippy, soggy, pickle-filled, oniony sandwich throughout the duration of Ben Affleck’s latest directorial effort. Every so often, the smell would die down, and I could concentrate on the enjoyable movie, a mixture of comedy, skullduggery, and old-fashioned suspense. But just when I was getting into it, really losing myself in the film, another wave of oily stench would rise up above the crowded theater. My row-mate noisily unwrapped and masticated her foot-long grinder, sending showers of sauerkraut,  secret sauce and ham all over the people sitting near her.   One man sitting close to me was so thoroughly festooned with lettuce and onions that I could not make out his facial features.  “Argo” was a fine movie,  based on what…

“Have you cracked the parenting code for how to turn your kids into little angels who share toys and play on their own for hours? Have you battled the Tiger Mom who lives next door and won? Do you have some special insight about raising well-adjusted kids, but need an audience to share it with? Then don’t miss the writer Amy Ettinger’s upcoming class on this thorny topic, entitled “Diapers, Sleep Deprivation and Dating Daughters.”  The class is starting to fill up — and right now, Amy is getting heaps of publicity and great feedback for her recent, button-pushing story in the Huffington Post, explaining why she is raising our daughter to be a ‘slacker’ (note the strategically placed square quotation marks). Expect to hear some no-holds-barred juicy insider tidbits about parent-lit and the writing life, and get great feedback about your own writings in this intensive course. Here is…

My God. Has the time come around so quickly? Is it time for me to gear up, for the thousandth time, and head out to the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair? My eyes bugged out when I realized that the fair is now in its 39th year! That means 19 years have passed since I first set foot in this festival dedicated entirely to fungus. That year I went to an event called “Fungal Favorites: A Taste Test” and watched bearded, Guatemalan-sweater-wearing locals manhandle, squeeze and even sniff such fungi as the “big laughing mushroom,” the “insidious gomphidius,” the “sheep’s head floccularia,” the “cute conic waxy cap” along with the “poison pie” and the “cloudy clitocybe.” As I recall, some of the edible mushrooms had less-than-edible-sounding descriptions. Take, for instance, the ‘delicious milk cap,” which is “thought to be more delicious by Europeans than Americans. This sturdy orange mushroom becomes slimy…

Thanks for checking this every day, even though I haven’t put an update on here for a while. Check back for my New Year’s resolution, and news of my recent trip to a remote desert in Southern Calfornia, where I stumbled, unexpectedly, on various scenes from The Cactus Eaters (and stumbled into the book itself! Crazy. I wasn’t even thinking about the book in any way, shape or form during this trip and yet I kept colliding with it. It was like being caught up in a wormhole through time.) I hope you are doing well and resting up after your long, crazy holiday celebrations. http://cactuseaters.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default